Greville Rumble Knihy

This volume assembles some of the most important papers written by Greville Rumble over the past twenty years. The book is organized into three major parts: economics of mass distance education; the debate on the competitive vulnerability of distance teaching universities; and the economics of e-learning. The papers certainly allow an interesting historical perspective on the work of one of the leading experts in the economics of distance education. However, they also address the actual impact of e-learning on the traditional cost structure of distance education. While in traditional distance education economies of scale potentially mediated the trade-off between quality and costs, the most attractive e-learning options are those which facilitate communication between teacher and student. These tend to erode scale economies and compromise the remit of distance education to widen access. While this dilemma still remains unresolved, the reader is left with a good grasp of the relevant parameters impinging on costs and being strongly aware of the raison d'être of distance education: widening access of quality education.